Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Four days ago we had the 2011 Open Championships. Lots of players and trader alike went to see who will be the winner that will take home the PS3 prize. Wasn't able to make this post earlier since a typhoon hit our region and electricity and internet was cut.

G2 = Saw his hand with Aoi. He got Venus (from Earth), Kristya, Reborn, Orange, and something else. Got no choice but to discard his Venus. He revived it, spammed Balls, and got his setup for Kristya. I should have set the Torrential Tribute instead of saving it (was scared of early Storm).

Standing: 3-2 (losing confidence of making it to top8 now)

Round6: vs. JB (TG Agent Angel) 0-0-? not sure *won die roll

G1 and G2 = not really sure how it went. I kinda forgot. But I remember when I had LaDD which negated most of his cards.

Standing: 4-2

After this round I saw that my rank for the tournament was Rank 11 and got my hopes up again. I know that if I win the last round, I'll have a chance for Top 8.

Round7: vs. Noel (Chaos Metabeat) 0-x-0 *won die roll

G1 = Saw his hand and was able to control from there though I didnt have Frogs again. His Doomcaliber was always killed by Veiler.

G2 = He Trapdust+Mind Crush me. Payback, lol? haha, I got the same hand as game1. Aois and no frogs.

G3 = Very close fight. From 5 cards in hand, we went to 2 cards, then back to 5 again. I decided to use 1 Mind Crush and guess wrong just to see what he had. He had Gorz (he had no field), Cydra, Chaos Sorc? and other things. I used another Mind Crush to get rid of Gorz and used Swap Frog to poke his LP without giving him a chance to summon Cydra.

Standing: 5-2

Since I won, I really thought I would get to play in the Top8. However, when the final standings were up, I saw that I went down to Rank 12 even though I won my last match. T_T Didn't know how and why that happened but they said the Konami software's tiebreakers is very different from the Mantis software we were used to.

Final Rank: Top 12. Got a ANPR booster as extra prize and pulled a Rooklord which I sold for $5. Got money for dinner now, lol.

As you can see, Agents won the tournament, occupied almost half of the Top 8 and I am sure it is the deck most represented today. The next major tournament will be the Asian Team Tournament on November and I am sure Agents will also be the deck to beat next month.

I know the PS3 is already out for a few years now but who wouldn't want to own a new console, right? I dont even have one yet. >.<

For those wondering, here in the Philippines we have 2 kinds of tournaments: Sanctioned and Open. Sanctioned tournaments are those Konami-ranked tournaments that only allows Asia-legal cards in it. However, we also have a good number of players that only play TCG cards and that is why the Open tournaments are held where both OCG and TCG cards are allowed. Annually, an Open Championship is held and this usually is attended by lots of players coz of the bigger prize pool, chance to sell cards, and have good trades.

It's the 3rd Open Championship now and looking back to the previous ones...

I dont have a list for the 2009 deck (EDIT: Got a link to it now) but it is almost the same as the 2010 deck but without the Heroes. Why anti-meta? Open tournaments are the only events where anti-meta cards such as Raioh, DCK, and Fossil Dyna are allowed and most PH players are not accustomed to playing against them. So should we expect another Anti-Meta-ish deck to win once again on Saturday?

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Last time I said I was using a deck I called "chopseuy". Here it is...

I guess you can now guess why I called this chopseuy. Its a deck made by mixing together Plant, Lightlord, Chaos, and Dhero, just like how you make mixed vegetables: just throw everything in and hope it tastes good! For me, I made this just so I can use all the "draw" cards available!

Its great when...
= you draw Solar Recharges and a LS
= then you draw another Solar Recharge and a LS, OR
= you draw Destiny Draw with Malicious
= you draw Trooper, mill great +/- Wulf/s, and have a Trago/Gorz in hand
= you can do the Plant tricks

Its SOOO bad when...
= you draw Solar Recharge but no LS
= you draw DDraw but no DHero (happens aLOT at early game)
= you draw Warrior Returning Alive but got no mill yet
= you dont draw Trooper and/or Trago/Gorz
= you draw the plants and gardnas
= you draw multiple Wulfs
= you draw 2 Malicious or milled them both
= OR wtf... you draw 3 Wulfs and 2 Destiny Draws/2 Malicious! (believe me, this happened to me 2x!)

What can I say... Pls dont even attempt to try this deck out competitively, unless you want your friends have fun laughing about what you drew with your 1st six cards. :))

Monday, September 5, 2011

Six Samurai dominated the meta since the release of STOR and successfully evaded being hammered by the March 2011 banlist. Lots of players shifted to playing the deck simply because of the dreaded "1st-turn-Shien + lots of backrow".

Now...

Six Samurai is quickly losing popularity though it is expected since it is the deck most hit by the new banlist. The consistency of having a 1st-turn-Shien and having the ability to safely set multiple backrows is now stripped away from the 6Sam players by having the main culprits - LSS Shien and Shien's Smoke Signal - getting limited and Heavy Storm now returning.

The 2011 PH Champion William "Wslasher" Sy is known as a die-hard fan of the archetype ever since the STON days. He piloted Sam in almost all the tournaments he played and looks like he's not stopping even though the deck is now considered less than Tier 1.

Comparing this new Sam build with the post-Sep Sams, we can see a lot of changes...

1. From a conservative 12-14 monster lineup, it is now 21.

Generically, we can call this deck as Chaos Sams. Aggression is now the key tactic of deck. Bringing out big beaters such as Zanji and Irou to take out both f/u and f/d monsters with Enishi bouncing potential synchro summons of the opponent. Lots of LV4 monsters give easy access to Rank 4 Xyz.

2. Ascetism of the Six Samurai x3

Its not like the use of Ascetism is new; however, from being used to simply summon Shien, it is now also used

as a way to simply swarm your opponent out of their LP and as a way to bring out Zanji with Kizan and Irou with Kageki or Enishi or vice-versa to provide a sort of "toolbox" for the deck.

3. Almost no traps and "Backs to the Wall (Ultimate Last Stand)"

The last time I played with him he used Double-Edge Sword Tech in order to synchro summon or to bring out more LV4s to attack and to Xyz rank 4s. The build he won with uses Backs to the Wall as new tech. It is a card that, at the cost of reducing your LP until 100, lets you summon Six samurai monsters as much as possible from your graveyard provided you do not summon 2 monsters of the same name. Frankly, I see it as a do-or-die card. Activate it, do your stuff; if you fail to kill your opponent, you pretty much lost the game.

In fairness to the card though, if gives you a lot of options and moves to make almost like Return from the Different Dimension. You can return monsters to synchro, Xyz, direct attack with, destroy cards, or just for the sake of summoning back your Shien and his lackeys. Remember, your monsters dont leave the field at the end phase unlike RftDD and DEST.

Pros:

= swarming and destructive power is incredibly high (esp. against f/d monsters, T_T my Rykos)

= has easy access to both Shien and Naturia Beast although not the same as the past format.

= Rank 4 Xyzs are easy to make. I can even see No.16 Shock Ruler being summoned by this deck.

= Enishi is trouble if the GY is loaded with Sams

= Can easily side into Dimensional Sams against other GY decks.

Cons:

= Simple 1800 and 2100 atk monsters are relatively easy to deal with.

= Creates tempo with swarms. No swarm = no pressure on opponent

= Shien wouldn't make that much of a threat if it doesn't protect powerful traps.

= No self-protection at all besides the lone Book and 2x Warnings

I dont even like the Warnings in this build. BTH is probably much better. Activating Backs to the Wall then drawing Warning next turn (if you get another turn) spells game over.

It is still the start of the format and we can't safely say that Six Samurai wont be much of a threat in the upcoming months. This attack-oriented side of Samurai is the polar opposite of what Six Samurai decks are about last format. With more tests with it by more ppl, we might see the the deck back again in top tables.

Next up! My deck. lol. I talked about how anxious I am to use Dhero and Junk Doppel tricks although here I wrote I'm currently playing Chaos Lightlord. One word can describe my deck: chopseuy! lol

Friday, September 2, 2011

Was not able to update the blog for several days now because of personal/school things that are needed to be dealt with first, but I'm back now! :D

Today several things are changing in Yugioh...

1. The update for the forbidden and limited lists take effect today!

We all know the changes that happened. Goodbye Trunade! Hello Storm!

2. TCG-side now updated their rulebook regarding Xyz summoning and how that affects the "leaves the field" triggers.

This should have been cleared up a long time ago. The OCG have long ruled that Xyz summoning and detaching are not considered as "leaving the field." Kevin Tewart said otherwise though and that's why we have the Tour Guide engine. I'm in an OCG country, btw, so this shouldnt concern me. However, im still playing at DN and im so irrirtated with all the advantages that a simple normal summon of 1 card gives.
So, thanks Konami, at least you did your job. Bye Tour Guide sh1t! Good riddance

3. The meta, from all-Junk Doppel/Six Samurai, is now all-TG Agents!

Way to start the new format. We all expected Lightlords to make top spots all over but this was not what happened. Remnants of decks not hit with the banlist - namely TG and Agent Angels - combined and took up Tier0-1 status because their previous mismatches were hit with the list.

Conclusion:
Although Lightlord are much more explosive compared to Agents, it is much more inconsistent. See the LL bosses? They have harder requirements to summon compared to the Agents'. You can add Duality to LL to gain some consistency, but Agents have already done that. lol. Duality + TG monsters made the deck super consistent compared to last format.

4. My blog is added with Tabs! :)

My blog just hit 3000 views the past few days while I was away. Most of my viewers are also from my country. To comemorate and as thanks, I've put up a section where a list of regular and scheduled tournaments here in the Philippines are shown.

5. Tomorrow, NEW DECK! The 2011 PH Champion, William "Wslasher" Sy shows his new deck idea for his Six Samurai deck. Watch out for it!